12 More Mooncakes You Don’t Want to Miss in 2009 – A Remix!

The Mid-Autumn Festival is less than two weeks away! Have you bought your mooncakes yet?

If you have enjoyed my compilation of the 12 most interesting mooncakes you can find in Singapore, you may find this remix selection of 12 spanking new mooncakes useful, too.

One cannot help but notice that the seasonal dessert has evolved into increasingly exotic and tantalising variations. So, here are 12 more mooncakes you don’t want to miss in 2009!

Enjoy your mooncakes, everyone!

1. Meritus Mandarin

To suit various palates, over a dozen mooncake flavours have been launched at Pine Court restaurant, Meritus Mandarin.

Of these, the oh-so-pretty osmanthus snowskin mooncake stands out effortlessly, thanks to its unusual dual-coloured osmanthus-scented skin. Osmanthus is known as “gui hua” in Chinese.

The skin is a pastel yellow with rosy hues. This delicate snack is not only attractive on the outside, it has substance, too! The filling is a mixture of black bean paste, egg yolks, pine nuts, macadamia nuts and melon seeds. If you like having something crunchy to munch on, this one’s for you. ($25+ for 2)

One highlight is the peanut and chocolate mooncake. It’s the combination of a chocolate feuilletine layer plus a peanut butter cream layer. Comes complete with bits of peanuts, too! Go nuts over this dessert. It sure gives new meaning to the phrase “delicious sin”. Yum!

Don’t forget the lovely rose and vanilla sponge cake. It is layered with chocolate and pastry cream, enfolded by a rose-infused snowskin. Check out my full review of COVA Pasticceria mooncakes with more pictures and details.

To sample all flavours happily, grab the box of four assorted flavours at $36+.

3. Hilton

While we’re on that game… What do you get when you cross cheesecakes with mooncakes?

The best of both worlds – cheese mooncakes! Imagine the yummilicious flavours like peanut caramel, strawberry with white chocolate and vanilla, cranberry and raspberry, and mango and pecan – all with cheese! Get these at the Hilton. These babies are some of the richest and most satisfying treats you would find this Mid-Autumn Festival. ($38 for four)

4. Häagen-Dazs

When we think of ice cream mooncakes, swensen’s is probably the first name that comes to mind. Do you know that they aren’t the sole player in the ice cream mooncake business?

Check out the range of Mid-Autumn delights at Häagen-Dazs!

The mooncakes are handcrafted and coated in a layer of dark chocolate. This isn’t just another all-sweet-and-nothing-else dessert. Nestled within the chocolate and vanilla ice cream is a delightful mango sorbet core. To experience a burst of fruity flavour amidst the sweet frozen bliss certainly comes as a nice surprise! ($32+ for 2, $56+ for 4)

You can purchase these at $19.80 for 4 at the Crystal Jade My Bread outlets.

To please the coffee fanatics amongst you, there is a snowskin mooncake with coffee and black sesame paste. ($32 for 8)

Lending a little cute are these colourful cupcakes. I know they aren’t mooncakes… But look, how kawaii! They are adorned with festival icons like adorable bunnies and moons to spread some cheer. ($9.90 for 6)

Pair these with the Hello Kitty mooncakes from polar puffs and make any kid the happiest child in the world!

6. Rendezvous Hotel

This gorgeous morsel is packed with the wholesome goodness of pistachio nuts, cashew nuts and chocolate sauce. Perfect for people that prefer cakes more than mooncakes, but wanna indulge in the festivities anyway. ($45 for 8)

For better variety, the 8-piece set comprising four flavours – durian, coffee, peach and raspberry cheese – is available at the same price.

(Aside: I happen to love the buffet dinner at Rendezvous Hotel. I have dined there a few times. So far they have yet to disappoint.)

7. Starbucks

Do mooncakes complement coffee? Starbucks says aye. That is why you find the café chain baking up a storm every Mid-Autumn Festival.

You can immediately recognise a Starbucks mooncake from the famous mermaid logo that fits nicely on the round surface.

This year, however, the pastries take on a whole new swirly design.

The signature flavour here is the espresso roast almond truffle that totally ties in with the coffee theme. Made using espresso roast coffee, with a chocolate and almond truffle tucked within the white lotus paste, this is naturally a hit with coffee lovers. For completeness, order a cup of joe to go along and you have yourself a fuzzy little Mid-Autumn breakfast!

If you prefer something non-caffeinated, go for the white chocolate macadamia truffle. It comprises white lotus paste with pieces of macadamia nuts and a white chocolate truffle centre. ($5.90 apiece, $23.60 for a box of 4, $21.25 for purchases of 10 boxes or more)

8. St. Regis

Over at St. Regis, they have unveiled the ultra-posh almond snowskin with premium bird’s nest and custard. A touch of class!

While the most innovative mooncakes today tend to contain truffle fillings the likes of chocolate, caramel, and perhaps even champagne, this one trumps the rest by featuring a bird’s nest core! We’re talking oodles of the golden strands.

One flavour that I must highlight is the inventive ginger-infused milk snowskin mooncake with century egg and custard. Yes, you read that right. Pieces of century egg hidden amidst the custard paste. Talk about novelties, this one takes the cake! ($46 for 8)

9. Emicakes

Durian, love it or hate it, it is here to stay. The pungent fruit has found its way into mooncakes as well as the hearts of mooncake lovers. Durian devotees would be happy to know that several mooncake merchants are selling durian flavours this year.

Local bakery Emicakes has rolled out the durian snowskin mooncake in both big and mini sizes:

12. Mandarin Oriental

The good people from Mandarin Oriental have also churned out some highly appealing mooncakes. There’s even one with soy bean snowskin, egg white custard and crunchy chocolate pearls! Anything with soy bean scores brownie points with me.

The pale green snowskin mooncake with green tea and cherry blossom bears a subtle fragrance. One cannot help but wonder if this is indeed made in the namesake of cherry garden, the restaurant that created it. ($48 for 8)

Bonus: Chop Tai Chong Kok (Da Zhong Guo 大中囯)

Snowskin mooncakes have taken centre stage so far. If you’re thinking: what about the traditional baked skin mooncake? Surely it deserves a place here, too? About time you feature it! Well, here it is!

When it comes to crowning the best classic mooncake, one name that always comes up is the long established Tai Chong Kok, better known by its Chinese name 大中囯. This humble shop along sago street in Chinatown has been around since the 1930s! Clearly, the business has stood through the test of time, with a recipe that has been handed down through the generations.

I love the fact that the baked skin is not oily and of the perfect thickness. It is filled with a creamy smooth lotus paste that is fragrant and not overtly sweet – just the way I like it. As for the yolks, they are moist and non-flaky.

Those looked delicious. Of course, pretty mooncakes are often expensive, but then again mooncakes aren’t cheap now. I’m so tempted by the one from Meritus Mandarin, I wonder if they taste as good as it looks.

Have you tried the yam/pumpkin ones from Eater Palace? Those are fantastic as well. :)

Eater Palace? Nope, I have not sampled their mooncakes. Frankly I’m not a big fan of yam or pumpkin (complex carbohydrates lol). But pumpkin mooncakes are definitely interesting. Haven’t seen any around this Mid-Autumn.

Wow, awesome review of some very interesting mooncakes.
Have you visited Ngee Ann City basement 2? They currently have a mooncake expo with lots of booths there promoting their various designs & flavours.

Thanks for posting this! It’s so interesting to know that mooncake has gradually and slowly gotten the attention it truly deserves! I sure love to enjoy mooncake whenever the Autumn festival comes around! It brings back great memories and not only that, it’s such a sophisticate and complex type of tea cake! In fact, it’s probably one of my all – time favorite tea cakes if I can have it all year round!

Wow you must be working in a huge company, to have so many companies sending you mooncakes! I notice that that they are different types of companies, too. Yeah to be frank, it’s easy to feel “ni” from eating mooncakes. As of now, I have stopped eating all mooncakes already, and it’s not even Mid-Autumn Festival yet.

My mom was so enthu about eating mooncakes, we bought 2 boxes during the 3 weeks back and finished all within a week!!! I only got to eat a tiny slice in the end because I didn’t realise those boxes were on the way to being empty!!!

Must have been infected by your blog…. tried Starbucks snowskin expresso truffle today. Okay. Wish there was more of the chocolate.

As for Taipan, I tried the black sesame with green bean centre and one with mocha centre. The snow skin is really soft! Don’t really like red or green bean so I ate the ‘covering’ and hubby gobbled down the rest.

Isnt it common to get mooncakes during mid autumn festival, cheese, wine, ham, log cakes during christmas and oranges, hamper, bak kwa during chinese new year ?

It happens at most of my sch mates firms…

Anyway, the “worse” is during chinese new year where they sent like many boxes of bak kwa of the 2 usual brands…n you get lots of wastage when some ppl will forget to pack it n leave a new box overnight in aircon room, throw away the leftovers the next morning n then open a new box n repeat….

At the company where I used to work, a large company by any standard, it’s extremely rare for anyone to send over any mooncakes, bak kwa, log cakes, etc. So it makes me envious when I hear of people sampling so many goodies at work!

Nice pictures and detailed information. Very useful when I need to decide which mooncake to purchase.

Have you tried the Wing Wah mooncake from Hong Kong? It is available at takashimaya mooncake delights fair. Try the white lotus mooncake, the white lotus paste is so smooth and not too sweet…. yummy : )

hey! have you tried sheraton towers’ green tea snow skin with tiramisu truffle? it took my breath away! haha! it’s really the best snow skin i ever had. and it’s sold out!! i have yet to call the hotel to check out for new stock. you HAVE TO try it!

About two weeks ago,it was moon festival.In China,many people sent my family some mooncakes like Tai Chong Kok .Today,I see many different tasty moonckes.I think I am interested in them.I think they are delicious.